What do the asterix(s) on the top or bottom of a page in a novel represent?

Question

In all novels in random pages, at the top or bottom of the page usually underneath the page number, there is an asterix somtimes three. What do they mean?

Answer 1

Looking for Obelix?
Think you mean asterisk :)

Answer 2

It represents a white area damage, like a mini-financial ruin damage which some writers use more suitable usually than others. some books could have asterisks (*) each and anytime they damage; others will in reality use them even as the damage comes on the bottom of a web page and may be ordinary to ignore as only area of the margin. usually the determination, inspite of the truth that, is the writer's, very resembling the font or margin length.

Answer 3

They are a break in the text - the kind that would usually take the form of an extra line space after a paragraph. When this kind of break occurs at the bottom of a page, however, the reader can't tell there's a break there - so the typesetter puts in three asterisks to signify a break.

Answer 4

It could be the end of a signature.

Many books are bound in signatures, a printers' term for sheaves of pages like little pamphlets that are then stuck together into the overall binding of the book. When old paperback books dry up and crack, they often crack at the seam between signatures. Sometimes, especially in older Penguin books, the end of a signature will also have a mark consisting of something like the italics of the book's title, together with the number of the signature, so that e.g. 'Alice in Wonderland' signature 3 will have something like 'A.I.W. 3' at the bottom of the last page of that signature.

Then again, it could mean something else entirely.

Answer 5

Usually, they represent a change in scenery or character. They can be seen before someone goes into a dream, when the scene changes, or when the story changes to see a different character in action, or their point of view on something.
They usually look like this: ******
However, some writers like; J.R.R Tolkein use them for giving facts, descriptions or references that aren't included in the story, because of it not making sense.

Answer 6

They are most frequently used to denote the end, or beginning, of a paragraph, when there is not enough space on the page to leave a noticable gap, that would otherwise show this.

Answer 7

This means that the story ends off but there isn't a new chapter. like, for example, it may be talking about a man who us dancing on a hill thinking about something. then after the astericks, he will be somwhere else, or it will have another character.

Answer 8

Tiz a page break....or change in the time scale..or something...Just like a new paragraph. It isn't in all books...just breaks up the text

Answer 9

Sometimes they are merely decorative. Sometimes they mean a change of scenery.